Power supplies and power converters are used in a variety of electronic systems. Electrical power is generally transmitted over long distances as an alternating current (AC) signal. The AC signal is divided and metered as desired for each business or home location, and is often converted to direct current (DC) for use with individual electronic devices or components. Modern electronic systems often employ devices or components designed to operate using different DC voltages. Accordingly, different DC-DC converters, or a DC-DC converter that supports a wide range of output voltages, are needed for such systems.
There are many different DC-DC converter topologies. The available topologies differ with regard to the components used, the amount of power handled, the input voltage(s), the output voltage(s), efficiency, reliability, size and/or other characteristics. Like many electronic components, ongoing innovation efforts for DC-DC converters involve a reduction in size. This is largely due to market demand for small components and the availability of integrated circuit (IC) fabrication technology.
Although IC fabrication technology provides an excellent platform for manufacturing circuits with repeated components, there are unmet challenges when it comes to manufacturing IC versions of DC-DC converters. These challenges are present to the extent different types of switches are needed to handle power conversion operations. This is because making different types of switches complicates, or makes unfeasible, the IC fabrication process. One way to deal with these challenges is to make separate IC DC-DC converters, each with a limited input voltage range and output voltage range. However, this solution does not leverage IC fabrication technology efficiently in that multiple IC dies and/or packages are needed for electronic systems designed to use a wide range of DC voltages. Efforts to improve DC-DC converter technology are ongoing.